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Touring the World of Architecture: Week 11

March 14, 2014 /

By Christopher William Reeves

Hello one and all. Welcome to Touring the World of
Architecture, arcspace's weekly round up of all things interesting!
This time we comment on Koolhaas's vision for the 2014 Venice
Biennial, Sou Fujimoto's provocative French pineapple design and
MVRDV's mirrored bowl. Be sure to check out the natural
architecture on show in our Friday fun video. Have a great weekend
from the arcspace team

Remember, give us a shout if you would like to see anything
featured on the site or just want a good old chat! hello@arcspace.com

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Top Story

Venice Biennale Set for Refreshing 'Fundamentals' Theme

This week Rem Koolhas, star architect and director of the 14th
Venice
Architecture Biennale has revealed his plans for the exhibition
to "sever all connections with contemporary architecture which, in
spite of many impressive manifestations, is not in good health".
Instead he proposes to focus efforts highlighting the progression
of global architecture over the last 100 years. Architecture's most
famous exhibition will be centred around the theme 'fundamentals',
highlighting the progression of global architecture over the last
100 years, where it now finds itself today and a speculation
for the future of the industry.

Koolhaas stated at the Italian Cultural
Institute in London "What we hope to do with this biennale is
to lift the pressure of constant seriousness of the profession of
architecture," "I think architecture is written about as if it is a
dead serious discipline, but I think there is life in
architecture." We agree Remy! Why so serious? Lets get some fun
going, I for one will crack a beer or ten this weekend, get the old
sketchbook out and try my hand at architecture…ing!

image: Venice Biennual
2014

image: Venice Biennale 2014

The Venice Architecture Biennale 2014 will open to the public on
7 June and will run until 23 November.

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Another Story

Fujimoto's Pineapple

Ok… I admit, this is borderline last week but there's so much
going on these days and we couldn't miss featuring such an
captivating design from Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto.

From an architect with such a strong portfolio including the Musasho Art University
Library and an evocative sketch book we expected a
spectacular design and there is no doubt that this tower, destined
for Montpellier, France is just that, spectacular. The title of the
design is, Arbre Blanc or 'White Tree' for those of us who weren't
concentrating in French classes! In collaboration with Manal Rachdi
of OXO and Nicolas Laisne Architects
this design grew from Fujimoto's ideology that architecture should
reflect forms found in nature. In our eyes they have achieved this;
a tree, a pinecone, a pineapple, even an upright hedgehog, this
design is full of flare and functional expressionism.

Featuring 120 apartments, a restaurant, panoramic bar, office
space and an art gallery, the building will sit at the crossroads
of several major transport links as well as incorporating the
extension of the nearby riverside park.

If your lucky enough to get one of the apartments you will have
an abundance of beautiful views from the huge, leaf like, sun
catching balconies. They've taken BIG's VM house
balconies to the next level. Just imagine the summer BBQs! Privacy
is an issue that Fujimoto and his crew may have slightly overlooked
here, as well as balcony water management but hey… minor details to
figure out before construction!

This Weeks Win

The Boijmans van Beuningen Big Bad Bowl!

The Dutch outfit MVRDV has this week revealed
it's competition winning design for the Boijmans van Beuningen
Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands. As part of the OMA design Museum
Park, the building will form a mirrored bowl and exposed sculptured
rooftop garden. The building is in effect a storage facility for
Rotterdam's famed art museum but is in fact also a public
exhibition. 40% of the building will be open to the public who will
be able to view some of the 125,000 paintings, sculptures and
objects that are to be stored there. Visitors will be able to enjoy
the floor level café before meandering up to the rooftop sculpture
garden and restaurant. Sounds lovely, if all goes to plan with what
can only be assumed as some serious sun reflection issues!
Completion is due for 2017.

Friday Fun!

Seeing as it's the weekend we feel that its time to relax a
little! Before all you architects finally shut off your labyrinth
of Mac displays and for the rest of you, whether you've been
working, studying, exercising, laughing, crying, eating or sleeping
your way through the week, make sure to check out this mesmerising
video. Kick back and relax, nature style! See you next week
arcspacers